Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State. He covered many topics and I have no doubt there will be many questions.

I share the Minister of State’s concerns about the Europe-wide competitiveness authority and its remit. We have an authority of our own. According to the five presidents’ report the Europe-wide one will have the ability to draw comparisons with economies elsewhere, such as in the United States and China, and make recommendations on matters such as wage rates or work conditions. The worry is that there will be a race to the bottom, particularly given that we have set up a Low Pay Commission to consider issues such as the minimum wage. I am not sure I see the need for a Europe-wide competitiveness authority.

A fiscal authority, however, could be quite useful because while we are lucky in this country to have an independent Fiscal Advisory Council, which gives reasoned opinions on matters such as our annual budget, some countries, such as Hungary, do not have that type of council. A Europe-wide one would help ensure that countries which do not have an independent fiscal council would stick to the requirements of the fiscal compact.

In respect of the fiscal compact, Article 13 of the treaty stated there would be a conference twice a year to discuss the implementation of the treaty. The most recent conference was held on Monday. I was surprised at that meeting by the lack of awareness or engagement by many member states on the issue of Britain’s potential exit from the EU. One member state for instance proposed that we set up a parliament for eurozone members, which would fly in the face of what the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, is trying to achieve. We could be in danger of sleepwalking into a situation where we do not reach a successful conclusion to the negotiations that would allow David Cameron make a case for staying in. Is the Government preparing for that worst case scenario? What will happen if Britain does vote to leave? What measures and ideas does the Government have on how that might impact on us? What is our plan?